Them's fighting words! The politics of place names

Let's not forget the ENGLISH channel, that the French call La Manche (ze sleeve).

There's the city of Al Quds, sacred to (in strict alphabetical order) Christianity, Islam and Judaism, and better known to Westerners as Jerusalem.

And calling Derry "Londonderry" will raise eyebrows if not hackles in the vast majority of its residents.

Perhaps the best example of the name of various places changing for political reasons is what happened in Russia as it became the Soviet Union and then back to Russia again. After all, St. Petersburg became Petrograd, then became Leningrad, then back to St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg became Sverdlovsk and back, Nizhny Novgorod became Gorki and back, and so on.

Indeed, the very name Tokyo, which means eastern capital, is a modern one--it replaced the old name Edo in 1869 as the Emperor Meiji moved his primary residence to the grounds of the former Edo Castle.

Why are these barren islands called "Senkaku" by Japanese and "Diyaoyudao" in Chinese?

I re-post the following piece that I posted as a comment on "China says it is ready to talk if Japan admits isles are disputed" run on JT (Sep. 22, 2013):

Common nouns in a language are very ad hoc in naming objects. There's no reason why things are called as they are in languages. However, proper nouns are different from common nouns in that there's always reasons behind -- why they are called by such and such names.

Kubajima (久場島）or Huangwei Yu （黄尾鱮）in Chinese in the Senkaku/Diaoyudao Islands was an important landmark for ancient Ryukyu (Okinawa) seamen and traders navigating on the Okinawa-Fuchuan sea lane. These seafarers, who were thoroughly familiar with the Senkaku waters more than anyone else, called this landmark "Kubajima" because, according to one theory, the island was covered full with “kuba” (or Areca) palms. But I think it was called by that name because the island's shape is quite similar to that of another island called Kubajima, that is located about 40 km west of Naha, Okinawa Island, on the same sea lane. When necessary, the former was called "Iigun Kubajima" to distinguish it from the latter.

Isn't Chinese "Huangmao (Yu)" （黄毛）as recorded by Chen Kan （陳侃, 1534）and "Huangwei (Yu)" recorded elsewhere, meaning yellow hair or tail, a phonetic conversion of Kuba(-jima)? Note that the k-sound of Japanese (and Okinawan) ordinarily corresponds to the h-sound in Chinese. Or did the Chinese think the island was inhabited by mythic animals with yellow tails or hair and so named it as such?

The easternmost island in the chain is officially called Taishojima in Japan, but historically it used to be called Kumi-Akajima by Ryukyu seamen. Here, too, we see the same mechanism of nomenclature as in the case of Kubajima. There's an island called Akajima in the Kerama Islands whereby Kumi-Akajima in the Senkakus must have been named after this with Kumi added to differentiate it from its namesake.

The Chinese calls this island Chiwei Yu (赤尾鱮), meaning "red-tailed island." Did they believe the island was inhabited by red-tailed animals? Isn't it a semantic conversion of what Ryukyu seamen called (Kumi) Akajima (久米阿嘉島）, which could mean "a red island" in their folk etymology?

The name "Senkaku" comes from English "Pinnacle Islands." Nineteenth-century British Royal Naval seamen and explorers called the islands by that name for obvious reasons. Approaching the island group northward from Ishigaki Island, they must have been struck with the similarity of the first approaching island to Bartolome Island in the Galapagos, which is famous for its Pinnacle Rock, thus calling the island group Pinnacle Islands. The Japanese name "Senkaku" was coined after this by a natural history teacher named Hisashi Kuroiwa, who hailed from Kochi Prefecture in Shikoku and taught at Okinawa Normal School.

The Meiji government called the largest island in the chain "Uotsuri-jma", which is an apparent translation from "Diaoyudao". It also called the adjacent islands lying southeast of it "Kita Kojima" (North Islet) and "Minami Kojima" (South Islet) respectively. The Chinese names "Bei Xiaodao" and "Nan Xiaodao" definitely come from these Japanese names.

Ancient Ishigaki fishermen called the island (group) "Iigun-jima." "Iigun" (rhymed with "eagle") means the head of a spear used in dive-fishing, a fishing method probably unknown to the ancient Chinese. The reason why it is called so is similar to why the highest mountain in the Japan Alps in Honshu is called "Yarigadake." The top of the rugged mountain reminds one of the head of a spear ("yari").

Why did the Chinese call the island (group) Diaoyudao, a fishing island? Did unworldly men, as often depicted in Chinese drawings, go there and spent days angling for fish? Or have Chinese fishermen come here to engage in blue-water fishing since ancient times? Note, however, that blue-water fishing started only recently with the development of modern refrigeration technology.

Isn't "Diaoyudao" a semantic conversion of what Chinese royal missions to and from Ryukyu were explained to by Ryukyu seamen and traders traveling and navigating together aboard the same tributary and trading ships? Note that Chinese royal envoys came to Ryukyu Kingdom 25 times during the period from 1373 to 1866. During the same period, Ryukyu seamen, traders and the Ryukyu King's appreciatory envoys sailed to China more than 200 times.

All these linguistic and historical facts must be taken into consideration before anyone says anything definite about sovereignty over the Senkaku/Diaoyudao Islands on the basis of nomenclature.

Indeed, the very name Tokyo, which means eastern capital, is a modern one--it replaced the old name Edo in 1869 as the Emperor Meiji moved his primary residence to the grounds of the former Edo Castle.

If you really want to split hairs, the original name of the fishing village that preceded Edo was Shibasaki.

When I grew up in Wales, many places had English names, which were displayed on signs at the entrances to the city, town or village. Later Welsh was added beloow the English, e.g.

Holyhead Caergybi

Now many of the English names have disappeared from the signs.

The Menai Bridge no longer goes to the little town of the same name. That town is no Porth Aethwy.

The UK never used Myanmar, it's always been Burma.

The UK never used Myanmar, it's always been Burma.

Not sure about that, The Financial Times has been using the name Myanmar since 2012.

One should also know that what Tibetans call Jomolungma and the Nepalese call Sagarmatha is known to the western world as Mount Everest.

@presto345. The UK as in the state, not individuals and organisations.

"Is it the Senkaku or the Diaoyu islands?"

How about a group of far-flung rocks?

The name "Senkaku" comes from English "Pinnacle Islands." The HMS Samarang made a port at Ishigaki Island three times and on its second port calling in May, 1845, it launched out upon an exploration of the hitherto-unheard-of island group which the islanders called Iigunjima. Approaching the island group northward from Ishigaki Island on May 8, they must have been struck with the similarity of the first approaching island to Bartolome Island in the Galapagos, which is famous for its Pinnacle Rock, thus calling the island group Pinnacle Islands. The Japanese name "Senkaku" was coined after this by a natural history teacher named Hisashi Kuroiwa, in 1900, who hailed from Kochi Prefecture in Shikoku and taught at Okinawa Normal School.